Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Culture Clash
I cant help but feel hurt when I go onto sites and see people talking about how stupid Americans are. I was on imdb.com when I came across the American version of The Offices' message board, and all this guy said was that he didn't find the original British version funny and all these people ganged up on him telling him what a moron he was. They kept saying that Americans were to stupid to understand the subtle sarcasm about the show, that our sense of humor was far to "obvious" and dim-witted, that we need everything spelled out for us or we wouldn't understand. It's so discouraging to see that kind of anger and disdain towards Americans.
I'm not saying there isn't just cause to be upset at us- really upset. But to totally generalize ANY country as ANYTHING isn't fair. On this board, I'm assuming, just about all of the people who were saying these things were English as The Office is an English show. And if this is the case, how would they feel if I said that England was full of snobby, pretentious, mean, drunk techno freaks with bad teeth? Is that a fair generalization?
I'm not saying anything against playful banter or repartee-hell, I'm all for good humored banter. A day doesn't go by that I don't make fun of my Irish and Italian heritage, or make good humored fun of America and everywhere else I can think of, but this wasn't good humored. This was mean-spirited, spiteful stuff. But then, not many of the Americans on the board that were trying ti defend America were doing that great of a job. Such things as "We saved your ass in TWO World Wars!" and "We all know you guys are just jealous and want to be just like us.", or "Then why do so many people emigrate here and not to YOUR country?!" were thrown around multiple times. I love my home. But that doesn't mean that it's perfect. Far from it. Compared to England, France, and just about all of Europe, we are a very young country. We only became an actual country at about 1781. Thats roughly 226 years! How old is England?
In my mind it all comes down to three people: Chaney, Bush, and Rumsfeld. "But you people voted him in to office TWICE!" some may say. No.. Only once. Bush did not win the election in 2000. It was a cheat, contributed to by so many of his fathers bitches around the country. But yes, he did win in 2004. Why? Abortion, Same Sex Marriage, Iraq, Stem-cell Research. But firstly, let me stress this: HE IS NOT A CHRISTIAN! He is using the Christian Majority to get what he wants, to met his own ends. This is widely know. And the people who voted for him? Mostly middle America(excluding Alaska". The coastal sates (excluding Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina) are almost always Democrat. My mother has a theory, I don't know if its widely know or not, but its the first time I've heard it: Emigrants didn't usually go much farther into America than where they landed: New York, California, PA, etc. And these states got a constant flow of emigrants such as Poles, Irish, Italians, Germans; all of them had different languages and customs. A constant filtration of ideas went threw these states. But the South and Midwest... they got nothing. It almost seems like (most) of them never evolved with time. They were and are stuck in their ways. Nothing has changed.
I was deeply hurt by those peoples comments on that board. It was foreboding and made me feel fearful of travailing abroad. If I go to another country, will I bet met with hostility and ridicule? I have known for a while about negative feelings toward Americans, but what makes me most upset is the double standard. The French or the English insult us, but what if we fought back? If we insulted them, we are, yet again, stupid, lazy, dim-witted Americans and its not fair. I don't hate anyone. I've never done anything to anyone. I don't belittle other countrys or impugn the native peoples intelligence and character.
Thats what I think, at least.